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UK - Design and control software systems developer, Stardraw.com is now supporting a range of audio products from electronic musical instrument giants, Roland.

All Roland AR Series products such as the AR-200S and AR-3000R Digital Announcement Recorders can now be controlled from any PC using custom user interfaces designed in Stardraw Control. This software allows users to design and programme fully customised, standalone control applications without having to write any code. It supports control of any hardware over any protocol and now includes drivers for Roland's AR Series.

All AR Series products are also available as symbol sets in Stardraw's design and documentation application for professional systems contractors, Stardraw A/V. Symbols include schematic views showing all inputs and outputs for engineering diagrams.

Roland Systems Group's product manager, Neal Tomlinso

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Sweden - When Cengiz 'Jimmy' Savran bought the 540-capacity Kompaniet Club on Gothenburg's pedestrianised Kungsgatan a year ago it was a dance venue with big problems. And Cengiz would know, since he owned the Vice Versa restaurant right opposite. So he installed security cameras and quickly restored both its reputation and its interior under the new name of Wish Club.

The DJ booth features the Denon DN-S3500. "The main reason for this decision was that this CD/MP3 player contained more functions than anything else on the market, allowing the DJs to be more re creative with their mix," says Savran. "We have tried many other brands of equipment but Denon always lives up to our expectations and I have had nothing but good experiences with Denon equipment in the past."

Distributed in Sweden by EM Nordic, the pair of Denon's flagship players were supplied to Wi

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UK/Holland - Large format projection specialists E//T//C UK is supplying 12 PIGI projectors and crew to production company Sightline for a series of major concerts by Dutch superstar Marco Borsato.

The projectors are creating an image covering a large rear cyc measuring 70 metres wide with a 12 metre drop for the multi-platinum selling artist, who is currently playing a sold-out 10-show run at Arnhem's Gelredome stadium. The enormous production has consumed 55 trucks worth of gear across all departments and will have been enjoyed by over 350,000 people by the end of the run.

E//T//C UK is once again working with scenic and visual designer Bart Clements, who has created the show's production design in collaboration with Stefaan Desmedt. This is based on a multi-layered architectural montage of complimentary and contrasting video and projected images.

E//T//C UK's Ross Ashton

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Sweden - Lab.gruppen has announced an arrangement allowing Lab.gruppen to utilise Dolby® Lake Processor technology in future products.

"It is a part of Lab.gruppen's business strategy to be able to integrate other significant technologies within the company's tour-honed amplifier platforms," stated Tomas Lilja, Lab.gruppen's MD. "We are extremely excited now to have access to Dolby's Lake Processor technology. We know the outcome will be a positive benefit for both companies and the sound reinforcement marketplace at large."

Senior management and engineering teams from Lab.gruppen and Dolby have been collaborating on the development of this arrangement for over six months. The integration will not impact Lab.gruppen's central product manufacturing or sales channels. "Dolby's Live Sound Group has long held an immense respect for Lab.gruppen products

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Russia - Music Moscow was held between the 12-15 October at theSokolniki Culture & Exhibition Centre. Proel, together with Russian distributor Yarovit Music, took over the whole of Hall 17. The 500sq.m hall featured a wide range of Proel professionalproducts, from sound reinforcement and installation to lighting and stageequipment.

The Sound Reinforcement display consisted of almost all of the systems currently available - Axiom, Edge, NEOS, TFLV, TPRK, SmarTV Plus and Next together with the Proel professional amplifiers, spiltters and processors.

During the event, the professional touring standard Axiom and Edge were demonstrated and backed-up with complete technical seminars.The Axiom progressive array system consisted of six AX3210P, six Edge121SP subwoofers, powered by three Powersoft K10 and the Proel DSO26 processor.

The Edge point source system featured four Edge212P,

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China - Pen manufacturer Montblanc celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, and many international guests were invited to a star studded evening at Shanghai Film Park Studios in the Songjiang district of China.

Approximately 3000 special guests attended the event which included musical appearances by baritone Thomas Hampson, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, the violin virtuoso József Lendvay and Italian singer Lucio Dalla. These performances benefited from an L-Acoustics sound system provided by Lab Shanghai. A combination of KUDO and dV-DOSC arrays were used for the FOH system, complemented by SB218 subwoofers and dV-SUBs. In addition 115FM stage monitors were used as front fills and 115XT HiQs were utilised for the VIP Section.

Show designers Kenny and Don from Lab Shanghai reported, "We needed to hide the speaker cabinets on the ceiling while ensuring sound quality an

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UK - Summit Steel, working for production company DWP (Dobson White Partnership), rigged a large moving set in the Arena at the NEC, Birmingham, for the annual Awards and motivational event for beauty, cosmetics and jewellery empire, Virgin Vie. This was attended by 3500 independent Virgin Vie consultants.

The set - constructed by Total Fabrications - featured a large elegant and distinctive flown circular truss as its centrepiece. Summit utilised 21 ways of their Kinesys K2 variable speed automation system to fly and move the structure.

The circular truss itself was rigged on eight double-braked variable speed LL Lodestar motors and was moved in and out at strategic points during the presentation by the K2 system, piloted by one of its designers, Dave Weatherhead of Kinesys, assisted by Summit's Jay Call.

The advantages of using a K2 system for this type of show is its abil

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USA - Element Labs, Inc. (EL), reports that motor manufacturer Saab recently integrated the first white LED Stealth Screen as part of its exhibit at the Mondial de l'Automobile in Paris. Stealth is one of the new products recently introduced by Element Labs.

The Saab display featured seven screens, consisting of 1200 white Stealth panels (192 square meters), producing "spectacular image quality, resolution, flexibility, transparency and brightness". This media technology was planned, designed, installed and supported by service provider, CT Germany.

"Once again, Saab was able to deliver a stunning display and aid in the world premier of Stealth," said Georg Roessler, Managing Director, CT Germany. "Based on a very close relationship with the Element Labs development team, CT Germany was once again able to set a milestone with the first implementation o

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UK / Dubai - The new national tour of Chicago the Musical starring Jennifer Ellison, opened in September at the Birmingham Alexandra Theatre. Having supplied the production in Dubai earlier this year, Stage Electrics is once again providing all lighting and electrics for the musical, which is touring the UK for the next 40 weeks.

"This is a particularly busy time for us and with our London Bridge facility now firmly established as a vital resource to London's West End, coupled with our national network of branches supporting touring productions, we are ideally suited to provide a first class level of service to any show we are involved with," says Chris Patton, business development manager for theatre.

The fit up of over 16 tonnes of lighting equipment required for the West End production of The Sound of Music is now well under way. Stage Electrics is s

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Russia - Clay Paky and its distributor for Russia, Doka Media, exhibited from 12 to 15 October at Music Moscow, an annual event dedicated to audio and musical lighting technologies. "This year Doka decided to invest the majority of its resources in our brand, " said Clay Paky sales manager Alberico D'Amato. "The results were seen on the market and were also reflected in this Fair, where Clay Paky was able to have its own stand for the first time."

The Clay Paky stand displayed the Alpha Profile 1200 professional shaper, Alpha Spot HPE 1200 high performance spot and the two washlights, Alpha Wash 1200 and Alpha Wash Halo 1200, with ample space dedicated to demos. The wide Alpha range now numbers 12 models.

"Thanks to the solid partnership with Clay Paky, our turnover last year increased considerably," said Alexander Folkichev, Doka Media own

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UK - October 2006 saw Chris Rea play an exclusive show to an invited audience at London's Bush Hall, on the occasion of the launch of his first ever live album, 'The Road To Hell and Back', for which R G Jones provided another top quality, bespoke sound system. The intimate venue has a capacity of only 300, so the lucky few were treated to an 'up close and personal' set by the man who has cheated death to re-emerge as a dedicated exponent of the Delta Blues. Such is the dedication of some to Rea's music, that one particular couple had flown from Brazil for the privilege of experiencing the man in such a unique environment.

Of significance to R G Jones is the company's heavy involvement with the creation of this landmark album for Chris. The recordings were all made during the recent tour of Europe and the UK, for which RG's provided a state of the art sound system. The system ha

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UK - The young Vic has been heralded as one of the most exciting new performance spaces to open this year. Charcoalblue Theatre Consultancy, subcontracted by Theatre Projects, is responsible for the design, specification and integration of the entire technical infrastructure of this exciting new space.

One of the most important producing theatres in the UK, the Young Vic was originally founded in 1970 by Sir Laurence Olivier for the younger members of his newly formed National Theatre Company. Built as a temporary space, it had an intended life span of a mere five years. However it wasn't until 2000 - when the building reached a dangerous state of disrepair - that 'the powers that be' sanctioned its rebuild. The theatre reopened six years later to press on 11 October - on time and on budget.

Designed with total flexibility of space utilization and configuration in mind, Charco

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Italy / India - Announced at the PALA India exhibition in early October, Italian manufacturer LDR has appointed Modern Stage Service as exclusive distributor for its theatrical and architectural lighting products in India, following discussions earlier in the year at PALME in Dubai and at PLASA in London.

LDR's Fabiano Besio told L&SI: "MSS is one of the leading companies in the Indian market, not just a distributor but a company that really understands applications and how to support its customers, with strong knowledge of the local market and its requirements." He added: "The Indian market deserves a lot of attention."

Varinder Wadhwa of MSS commented: "LDR manufactures quality products, far better than what is available in India. Now the Indian market is opening up, and people are willing to pay for quality."

(Lee Baldock)

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USA - SE Systems of Greensboro, NC has been named the recipient of a 2006 TEC Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Tour Sound Production for the North American tour of Alison Krauss and Union Station, featuring Jerry Douglas. The award was presented to SE Systems as well as FOH engineer Bernie Velluti and monitor engineer Mark Richards.

According to SE Systems owner Cliff Miller, the use of JBL Vertec line arrays proved to be one of the keys to the tour's success. "The system has worked out extremely well for us on the Alison Krauss tour," he said. "We try to make the sound system as transparent as possible to maintain the purity of the acoustic instruments and Alison's vocals. With the Vertec line arrays, we are able to amplify the instruments through microphones without any additional built-in pickups. This provides us with significantly more gain at th

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France - At this year's Paris Motor Show, Lighthouse Technologies' R6 6mm LED screens added impact to the stands of Porsche, Nissan, Fiat and General Motors among others.

One of the most eye-catching stands what that of Porsche, which featured three R6 screens each in a 7 x 5 panel configuration. Two of the screens were used as portrait format backdrops, while the third was angled above the right hand upright screen and showed footage of the sky to create the illusion of the car, positioned directly in front, actually driving along a winding country lane.

"Car shows are always a spectacular affair," says Lighthouse managing director Mark Chan. "Each year the technology involved in the manufacture of vehicles becomes more sophisticated and the way in which companies market their products has become equally technologically advanced. LED screens are not only equal

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The Netherlands - In early September, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics World Championships took place at De Smelt (Ice Stadium) in Assen, the Netherlands. After the Paralympics this is the largest worldwide sporting event for the disabled in the world with approximately 1200 athletes from 78 countries competing for 891 medals. The event was broadcast worldwide.

The Championships' Opening Ceremony was produced by IdtV Events & Promotions with technical production and design completed by Livetime Productions. Livetime chose AED Rent as its partner for sound and lighting equipment. AED Rent recently purchased 100 MAC 700 washlights and Livetime was the first to use the new MAC 700 Washes in a technical production.

The Opening began with a parade of nations followed by a dance spectacle in which Fair Play and the importance of the referee in competition was h

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India - Avolites, working with its Indian distributor Jagmag Electric, staged a workshop, seminar and open day in Mumbai for its newly launched Pearl Expert console. This was the first viewing of the Pearl Expert in Asia.

Avolites' Steve Warren and Koy Neminathan organised the event with Jagmag's Atul Sonpal. It was attended by over fifty enthusiastic and interested individuals including LDs, programmers, operators, rental companies and show producers - representing a broad range of market sectors.

Avolites left Mumbai with 16 confirmed orders for the new desk. "I was honestly overwhelmed by the response" says Steve Warren. "The original Pearl has been a huge success for us in India generally, but reaction to the Expert has been stunning, and took us all by surprise."

Atul Sonpal comments, "This console has come to our market at exactly the right tim

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UK - Audio-Technica is employing an innovative Bluetooth based mobile marketing application at this year's Music Live exhibition to promote the new Artist Series range of microphones.

The BluRange Ranger from electronic marketing specialists, LHM Media, will broadcast a MMS message to all Bluetooth enabled devices - mobile phones, PDAs or laptops - within a 100 metre radius of the Audio-Technica stand (C50) during Music Live. The promotional message, with content incorporating full colour graphics, offers customers a further 10% off of the special offer price on all Artist Series microphones during the show, to anyone showing it on their mobile device to an Audio-Technica member of staff.

Commenting on the campaign, Harvey Roberts, senior UK marketing manager, Audio-Technica, states: "We are constantly looking to extend the reach and effectiveness of our mar

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UK - Adlib Audio has completed the design, specification and installation of a new sound system at Liverpool Royal Philharmonic Hall. The prestigious 1700 capacity concert hall venue is one of the city's landmarks, and Its music programme encompasses a wide variety of events.

Adlib's Andy Dockerty and Roger Kirby designed the system, and the installation project was co-ordinated by Mark Burnley. The system is based around a 9-a-side Nexo GeoD line array, with two Adlib AA 218 HL subs a side. The Nexo was chosen by the venue for its neat, tailored appearance that would cause minimal intrusion in the room and provide sufficient SPL for the various events held within the hall.

Across the front of the stage, the old Nexo PS10 speakers have been reutilised for centre stalls infills and onstage there are eight AA1214w floor monitors, Adlib's latest 650W/12" wedges. To the rear

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UK - 5 Star Cases has supplied a selection of Tour Grade 'specification' trunks to Paragon Projection, specifically to house their stock of Pioneer PDP-50MXE 50 inch plasma screens. The cases are finished in a striking Royal Blue laminate.

The usual construction and hardware characteristics found in Tour Grade include 12mm birch ply, together with large recessed butterfly catches and sprung handles. Internally, polyethylene foam supports ensure complete equipment protection. Additional compartments have been designed into the base to allow for the storage of matching speakers, plus mounting brackets and other accessories.

Mark Davies of Paragon Projection says, "We've been using 5 Star for about 18 months now and have given them some tough projects to handle in that time - and they just keep coming back with excellent innovative design and build solutions."

(Jim Ev

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USA - GE Consumer & Industrial has called for entries for the 24th Annual GE Edison Award competition. Through the competition, GE recognises excellence and quality in professional lighting designs that employ the significant use of GE lamps.

The competition is open to professional designers, architects, engineers and consultants. Entries are judged on the following criteria: functional excellence; architectural compatibility; effective use of state-of-the-art lighting products and techniques; appropriate colour, form and texture revelation; energy effectiveness and cost effectiveness.

Projects scoring the highest number of points will qualify to receive Awards of Merit or Awards of Excellence. The GE Edison Award Winner is selected from among the Awards of Excellence. Awards for Sustainable Design are given to those projects that demonstrate exemplary, sustainable lighting de

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UK - Comedian and actor Eddie Izzard was among the stars performing at the first Secret Policeman's Ball benefit show to be staged for 17 years, the event that raises money for Amnesty International.

For stage lighting, event organisers Flux asked Pete Barnes to design the show. Event Producer, John Farquhar-Smith, wanted someone experienced in both TV and live environments that would create a show that worked in both contexts.

Barnes created a semi circle of 80 PixelLine 1044s at the back of the stage that worked well as background eye-candy both on camera and live. He explains, "The 80 battens were housed in ten customised metal frames, which formed a wrap-around effect that didn't take-up too much stage room. Video content amalgamated with colours and effects were run through the PixelLines."

Izzard shared the stage at the Royal Albert Hall with many comedy favo

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UK - London's Trafalgar Square recently played host to a series of live music events, with sound reinforcement services provided by AdLib Audio Hire of Liverpool. A complete large-scale audio system featuring JBL Professional Vertec line arrays and Soundcraft's new Vi6 digital mixing console was supplied.

The weekend of September 15-17 featured an eclectic variety of events, including a peace rally and a full live musical programme. On September 16, Scissor Sisters performed at the MOTO (RED) benefit event, sponsored by Motorola. Proceeds from the show went towards the global fight against AIDS in Africa. September 17 featured Simcha On The Square, a celebration of Jewish music and culture.

AdLib Audio provided two main left/right arrangements of Vertec VT4889 full-size line array elements, with additional outfill arrays positioned to serve the large audiences in the br

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UK - London School of Sound (LSS) has adopted Allen & Heath's Xone:3D mixer/controller to conduct its modern DJ Skills courses for live performance and studio production, and has devised a course with specialised training on the Xone:3D in conjunction with Ableton and other music software providers.

"We were initially attracted to the Xone:3D because it is the first control surface for Ableton Live designed with the performing DJ in mind. The layout is clear and well organised, the controls are intuitive, and the construction quality make it a reliable choice for our demanding schedule of (ab)use!" explains LSS tutor, Federico Bersano Begey. "Its ability to work as an audio/MIDI interface for both Mac and PC, make it the ideal controller to run almost all of our courses."

He continues, "Modern DJ's, whether pro or bedroom, are interested in much more t

  1. Lighting by the Banks of the Thames
  2. LSC chosen for Florida churches.
  3. D.A.S. Seminar in Las Vegas
  4. Morbit At The Showman's Show
  5. Church Sound Workshops for NSCA EXPO
  6. Behind the Scenes raises over $55,000
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